Patients' perceptions about their illness have the power to influence health outcomes. However, existing illness belief measures can be burdensome. Using word clouds to illustrate patients' experiences is potentially a novel solution, but research is lacking in this area. This study aimed to explore whether word clouds illustrate patients' perceptions about their illness and to determine commonalities and differences in experiences of rheumatic diseases.

Stress processes have long been of interest to researchers. A growing body of research explores the bidirectional relations between stressors, psychological and physical states. However, research on stress processes and their individual differences from a dynamic systems perspective is still lacking. This study examined dynamic feedback loops between stressors, psychological distress, and physical symptoms simultaneously using ecological momentary assessment.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to combine the physiological, psychological, and spiritual health effects of spiritual and religious interventions on cardiovascular disease patients.

Sleep deprivation and reduced sleep quality are common in adolescents and negatively impact their physical and mental wellbeing. This study evaluates the effect of a participatory-developed school-based healthy sleep intervention for adolescents.

Although sexual minority men experience substantial discrimination, in addition to increased risk for several serious mental and somatic health problems, the biological mechanisms underlying these effects are unclear. To address this issue, we examined how experiences of social safety (i.e., community connection) and social threat (i.e., discrimination, in the forms of homophobia and racism) were related to conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) gene expression profiles across time, and whether these associations differed across HIV status, in a well-characterized, racially diverse sample of sexual minority men ( = 22.61, = 1.90).

Theoretical work suggests that moral psychological processes-those pertaining to the interests or welfare of others-are a key driver of overtreatment at the end of life. We examined patient moral processes and their associations with distress and treatment decision-making.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual community of practice (vCoP) in improving the activation of individuals with ischemic heart disease (IHD).

This field experiment examined the efficacy of a behavioral nudge intervention towards lowering sugar intake in Indonesia. Specifically, two competing hypotheses were tested as to whether behavioral nudge played an additive role (i.e., the Incremental Hypothesis) or contributed to a ceiling effect (i.e., the Saturation Hypothesis) alongside social context and competition in a multimodal intervention program.

Sex-related disparities impact adherence to essential health behaviors like a cardiac-healthy diet, exercise, and smoking cessation. However, the influence of gender on these behaviors remains unexplored. The current study examined heterogeneity in adherence to health behavior over time by studying the effects of sex and gender differences among patients who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

The effectiveness of behavioral interventions is typically evaluated relative to control conditions using null hypothesis significance testing (i.e., < .05) or effect sizes. These criteria overlook comparisons with previous interventions and do little to promote a cumulative science of behavior change. We conducted a systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to promote colorectal cancer screening (CCS) and generated benchmarks via the percentile distribution of s, screening rates for intervention and control arms, and differential screening rates (intervention minus control rate) in respective trials.

A health action process approach (HAPA)-based intervention was designed to support moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in individuals with osteoarthritis of the knee (OAK). In secondary analyses of the randomized controlled trial "preventing the impairment of primary osteoarthritis by high-impact long-term physical exercise regimen-psychological adherence program," we examined long-term effects of the intervention on HAPA determinants and MVPA, and explored the former as mediators of change.

Most cancer patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant report elevated symptoms and reduced health-related quality of life during peritransplant. These concerns can become persistent. A prior randomized controlled trial showed that expressive helping-a low-burden, brief intervention combining expressive writing with a novel peer support writing exercise-reduced psychological distress and physical symptoms in long-term transplant survivors with moderate/high persistent symptoms. The Writing for Insight, Strength, and Ease trial evaluated the use of expressive helping during peritransplant, when symptoms peak and early intervention could prevent the development of persistent symptoms.

Psychological stress has long been posited as a potential risk factor for breast cancer. We aimed to examine the relationship between occupational stress and the incidence of invasive breast cancer among postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

Behavioral intentions are one of the strongest predictors of health behavior. The current research explored the factors predicting action in those with already strong intentions (i.e., those with the most extreme intention scores).

We tested whether an intervention's dosage influences health behavior change. Intervention dosage was indexed by the duration of the intervention, the number of sessions, and total contact time in treatment arms of trials to promote physical activity.

When people receive information about the benefits and harms of mammography screening, they do not always accept it at face value and instead express skepticism. The purpose of this research was to identify the psychological drivers of this skepticism. Two theory-driven hypotheses were considered: One hypothesis proposes that skeptical reactions reflect a psychological defense against information that is emotionally aversive. Another proposes that skeptical reactions reflect a normative probabilistic inference that information that conflicts with prior beliefs is unlikely to be true. This work also identified the potential consequences of skepticism for people's screening preferences.

To examine the rates as well as the interdependence of depressive symptoms and sleep problems in patients with cancer and their intimate partner family caregivers.

This study aimed to examine asthma disparities at the intersection of four sociodemographic characteristics, inhaled substance use, and bias-based bullying as metrics of stigma. We hypothesized that high prevalence groups for asthma would be those with marginalized social positions and those reporting bullying experiences, independent of inhaled substance use.

This cross-sectional study described the home tobacco environment and its association with quitting behaviors among Black/African American women caregivers who smoke cigarettes and live in rural, low-resourced areas.

To explore the 2-year physical activity trajectory of Chinese college students and further examine the longitudinal relationship between physical activity trajectory and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, our study aimed to clarify the potential role of clock genes deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation in the association between physical activity and depressive symptoms.

This study examined the association between perceived stress and perceived tangible social support on parental feeding practices in a sample of Mexican American parents of young children. Tangible social support was examined as a potential moderator of perceived stress on parental feeding. Results by parent gender were also examined.